


warmer

by orphan_account



Category: NCT
Genre: Anyone else, F/M, I'm so tired, I'm sorry for this, i hope ur happy nico, please dont read this i'll write something better next time, rated for???language???? Lol, this sucks so much ass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-26
Updated: 2017-01-26
Packaged: 2018-09-20 02:47:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9472136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Inspired by so much shit it's so dumbI started writing this at 12 am its like 3:30 am now kill me





	

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by so much shit it's so dumb  
> I started writing this at 12 am its like 3:30 am now kill me

It started out a perfect day. It was supposed to be a perfect day. Nico had her life together; she finally woke up early for school for once, she did all her assignments, and her paycheck just came in. It was supposed to be the happiest day of her life.

She was in a good mood because of it, so when her manager asked her to lock up the store since he had to go off, she agreed.

When she was checking that everything was in order, she noticed a boy walking in the restaurant. His clothes looked baggy, his jacket hanging loose on his thin frame. His jet black hair looked wet, sticking to his forehead with sweat as if he'd just run a marathon. He sat down, shakily, at a table to the left of the room. He didn't seem to get up to order anything.

Nico sighed. He was wasting her time. But-- no matter. It was her perfect day. She wasn't going to let some guy ruin it by just sitting down at the neighbourhood Carls' Jr. It's not a damn crime.

“Hey, it's almost closing time, so you should better order something.” She called out to him.

The boy paused, and slowly turned to face her. He mumbled something, something that sounded like Chinese, in a dialect she wasn't exactly sure of. _Fuck, I hate speaking Chinese,_ she thought. Well, it was worth a shot, if he didn't understand her.

Nico repeated what she said in Mandarin, albeit a little slower so that she could remember the correct words to use.

The boy seemed taken aback, before responding with “I'm not buying anything.”

A girl of low patience, Nico grumbled a low, “Then go home, ah.” She didn't expect the boy to hear her, much less to understand it and laugh quietly at what she said.

“What's so funny?” She asked, almost forgetting that he didn't appear to understand her earlier.

“I have no home to go back to.” The guy said simply in Mandarin, a sad smile on his lips.

 _Oh shit,_ Nico thought. “Oh shit,” she said, leaving the counter to walk towards the boy's table. “You want to talk about it?”

 _I don't even like hearing about people's problems when they're my own friends, what the shit?_ She wondered to herself.

The boy shook his head. “It's okay, I'll leave for now.” He got up and shuffled towards the exit.

In turn, Nico shrugged and walked back to the counter. When she turned around, the boy had left. She didn't even hear the jingle of the door opening and closing. Must've just been a real quiet guy. She told the only other kitchen staff that he could clock out, turned the lights off, and left it at that.

She couldn't decide whether that affected her perfect day or not.

—

The next couple of days passed on like normal. Nico didn't see the boy again, so she didn't really think of him that much. Days turned into weeks, and it was two months later when she saw him again. This time was when all the staff was gone, her manager having to leave early again to settle his own personal matters.

She was busy cleaning the floor when she saw the same boy from before walking towards the joint. He looked exactly the same as he did two months ago-- minus the sweaty hair. She put the mop down and opened the door for him.

“We don't have any burgers for you, but we still have ice-cream, at least.” She joked.

“It's fine,” he smiled, and sat at the same table.

“Then... why are you here.” It wasn't a question. Some questions you can skirt around, leave unanswered. This demanded a response.

The boy didn't say anything, before replying with a small “It's warmer here.”

 _Aw,_ Nico thought. She watched the boy toy with a loose thread at the bottom of his shirt. He probably didn't have a nice place to go back too, since he said he was homeless the last time.

“Have you been well?” She asked, sitting next to him.

The boy smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. “I've just been... walking.” he told her, in accented Mandarin, once again. “I walk until I'm back home, and then I turn around and walk towards something I don't know. And I...” he trailed off and looked around at his surroundings, as if he didn't realize where he was until just then. “I find myself here again.”

“It took you two months to come back here?” Nico asked.

“I'm not good with directions.”

Nico let out a soft chuckle, and the boy seemed pleased with himself.

“What's your name?” She asked.

“Sicheng.”

“Nico.”

“Isn't that a boy's name?”

Exasperated, she threw her hands up. “It's not! Why does everyone say it is? What the--” She cut herself off when she saw how amused Sicheng looked.

At one point, they made eye contact and the air felt thicker. Suffocating. Sicheng looked at the ceiling and stood up abruptly.

“I should go.” he said, and turned to leave.

“Oh, um,” Nico stuttered. She followed him to the door. “Drop by soon, okay?” What am I doing?

Sicheng turned to face her and grinned, baby sharp teeth that made him look cuter. _I barely know him._

“I will.” _Do I want to know him?_

She darted forward to open the door for him. “Like a true lady,” she joked. _I think I do._

He left, and her heart felt like it was beating louder now that she was alone. _This is crazy._

'Soon' couldn't come any slower.

—

'Soon' was apparently a week after. It wasn't as long as the previous two month wait, but Sicheng had Nico interested, and confused, all at once.

He would come in, and they would talk and joke about everything and nothing. About how Nico would mispronounce something and Sicheng would tease her for it, how Sicheng would hiccup and Nico would pretend to be amazed by it. Sicheng would always wear the same clothes, and Nico wondered whether he thought she wouldn't recognize him without the usual get up. He probably wouldn't recognize her out of uniform, so it was kinda fair.

The visits started to get more frequent, and Nico found herself requesting for more late shifts, which received weird looks from her manager, who was aware of her full-time schooling, and her parents, who were getting worried that their daughter was working so late so often. Nico didn't mind though, it didn't affect her schoolwork that badly. The space between her and Sicheng started to get smaller and smaller, and Nico considered him to be a close friend. If close friends made your heart race and butterflies tingle in your stomach, Sicheng was perfect for the job.

On one afternoon, during her lesson, Nico felt her eyelids getting droopy. Sicheng had come in the night before, and she couldn't stop daydreaming about him. She imagined Sicheng as her boyfriend, one that held her hand as they went to the movies, that made her instant noodles because they were both broke and curled up against each other on the couch. She knew though, that she couldn't have it, because no matter how close they were, Sicheng was still a mystery.

Nico almost fell asleep in the middle of the lecture, and she looked around the room trying to distract herself in a way that kept her awake. She heard the girls in front of her talking about something, a K-Pop group that she wasn't familiar with. Something that one of the girl's said caught her attention though.

“Why do you still have him on your phone case if he's in a coma?”

The other girl pouted at her friend. “I'm still holding out hope that he's going to recover.”

Oh, that was... Unfortunate. Nico craned her neck to look at the girl's phone case. She only liked a couple of groups but there must be a face that she should have seen somewhere--

How?

How could that even be possible?

How was Sicheng on that phone case? He was the only one there, so it couldn't be anyone else and...

What the fuck?

What the actual fuck?

Nico looked back down at her laptop. It was open on Microsoft Word, where she was supposed to be taking notes but she couldn't concentrate on bloody principles on statistics when she could have been talking with a fucking ghost this whole time.

She opened Google and furiously typed in "sicheng kpop"

Article links popped up, all looking to be about the same thing. She clicked on one from Soompi that was dated from five months back and read;

_**'NCT's WINWIN involved in freak car accident – currently in critical condition** _

_On 6th March, NCT's Dong Sicheng (stage name, Winwin) was involved in a freak car accident caused by a parked truck that rolled down a hill to crash into Winwin's car. Only he and a staff member were in the vehicle, and as the staff sat in the front, she suffered less extreme injuries. Winwin was taken immediately to the hospital upon the discovery of the accident and actions were taken so that he could be examined._

_An investigation has been launched by Volvo as the truck that caused the accident, a 2016 Volvo FH16, had been recalled due to a “rollaway risk”, according to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration._

_“Drivers erroneously concluding that their vehicle’s transmission is in the ‘park’ position may be struck by the vehicle and injured if they attempt to get out of the vehicle while the engine is running and the parking brake is not engaged,” the organisation said in a report about the problem._

_More than 850,000 vehicles have been involved in the initial investigation about the issue._

_As of now, there has been no update on Winwin's status.'_

Nico sat there, stunned as she read the article. Five months ago... That was around the time she first met Sicheng, in that quiet Carls' Jr. All this time, was he even real? Was there any hope for him? Sadness overwhelmed her, accompanied by fear and grief and anger. Tears were fighting to come out, but she was in the middle of class and god damn it she wasn't going to cry. Not here. Not now. The worst part was that her next shift was in two days, so she had to let this eat her up from the inside until she could confront Sicheng.

As soon as she got home, she laid on her bed, started to think things over, and for the first time in a long while, began to cry.

—

When Sicheng entered the establishment at 11:30PM, all smiles, Nico felt as if her heart stopped. He waved excitedly at her, walking towards his usual seat. Before she knew it, she was running. Running to get there first, her arm outstretched and her hand ready to grab at the jacket that he wore everyday and--

It wasn't there.

Her hand brushed through his arm, as if he was a hologram of himself. She stopped running, and stuck her arm out directly at his chest, still longing for something, something to tell her that she's not crazy, and nothing. Her hand had gone through him, where his heart should be, a cold air surrounding her hand and she looked up at him, fear clear in her eyes, and she saw nothing in his.

It should have been obvious, really. His eyes were a dark brown, absent of life. The signs were all there, and she brushed it off.

She fell for a boy that was clearly marked danger, and if felt like now was the time that she was going to be put to suffer.

Sicheng looked at her sadly. “You found out?”

“You couldn't keep it from me forever.” Nico croaked out, the tears resurfacing once again.

“I tried to.”

“I love you.”

It hadn't mean to come out. Nico swore, it was purely accidental, it wasn't the right time. Sicheng carefully wraps his arms around Nico, and she only feels the cold enveloping her.

“I'm sorry,” he said, and for the first time, he's speaking in English, and it's slow and accented and sweet. “I love you too. And I'm sorry, but I think I'm going to die.”

 _Don't,_ she's yelling in her mind now. _Stay with me. Please._

“I can't,” he said, back to Mandarin, and Nico realized that she had been saying it out loud the whole time. “My time is up.”

“Wait for me, please, just wait for me.”

Sicheng was a ghost, but he looked close to tears too. “They say humans have four lives. I hope this is our firsts, and I hope I see you in my next one. I'll find you, I promise.”

_Please, don't go. Please, just come back. Please._

He whispered a soft “I love you,” and a kiss against her lips that almost felt solid, but it wasn't. Nico could only watch as her first love disappeared from her eyes, never to come back to that restaurant, and never to come back into her life.

—  
_A century later_  
—

It was a terrible day. It was the worst day of Nico's life, and she wondered why today of all days, it just felt so god damn long. 6th March was officially the worst day of Nico's existence, and she had only been existing for 17 years. She'd just started college, and something deep inside her told her to join the dance club. One, she hated dancing, and two, she didn't get a scholarship in Zhejiang to be fucking dancing. Well, she was doing traditional fine art but still, stupid co-curriculum activities and stupid inter-major whatever the fuck that forced students to join clubs of things that they didn't even come to study.

Well, could be worse. She could've been forced to get a part-time job while studying at the same time. She couldn't imagine a life of doing something as stressful as that.

Nico was trying to get to the dumb dance practice on time, when a senior bumped into her. Somehow, the force was too strong and both of them landed on their butts. Nico was already about to insult the other, but the minute she looked at the boy's face, she froze.

“Sicheng,” she whispered, and her heart burned and ached and she doesn't understand why. She doesn't know this boy, why did she seem to know his name and why did it hurt so, so bad?

The senior's eyes light up and he scrambled to hug her, one arm wrapping around her shoulder and a hand in her hair, gently pulling her towards him. His touch burned like fire and suddenly, she remembered.

She remembered the talks, the jokes. She remembered the article. She remembered that she was in love with a ghost, and that ghost loved her back. She remembered dying, not alone, but not happy. She remembered Sicheng whispering to her that he'll find her, when she was 17, and when she was 87. She remembered that it happened a hundred years ago. She remembered that it still hurt.

“I told you I'd find you,”

She could feel him smiling against her head, and it still hurt, but not as much anymore.

In retrospect, she had the most perfect day, on the same date, because of the same boy, though not in the same life. This time, when Sicheng kissed her, and it's real and soft and they're both begging for it, and their hands are intertwined and they're both still on the floor of the academy, she could finally have a happy ending.

**Author's Note:**

> There is no 2016 Volvo FH16 I made it up don't @ volvo  
> also i dont think soompi writes the member's real name but like whoops idk


End file.
